Shattered

As it was breaking
At that one gentle moment right before it snaps
She looked at him like he was still the only one
And told him, "I have good news and bad news"
He told her to say the bad news
And after what they went through
To watch it end she said, "Nothing lasts forever"
She looked at him and smiled a little
He looked down and asked, "Then what's the good news?"
And as a tear jumped out of her eye
She said with a choked smile, "Nothing lasts forever"
And then it broke
And it fell into one million pieces
Faster than either of them
Could catch it
With that she walked out the door and cried
He locked the door after her and he cried too
He sat down on his bed
And she drove home alone
And that night neither of them slept
Or ate
Because they loved each other too much they dove too deep
Now it's over and it should not have ended like this
It wasn't supposed to happen like this
And that's all everyone could keep thinking

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Editor’s Note

The number one question our editors receive is—what do the editors and judges look for when judging the contest? The number one answer we give is creativity. Unlike prose, writing composed in everyday language, poetry is considered a creative art and requires a different type of effort and a certain level of depth. Of the thousands of poems entered in each contest, the ones that catch our judges’ eyes are the ones that remove us, even just slightly, from the scope of everyday life by using language that is interesting, specific, vivid, obscure, compelling, figurative, and so on. Oftentimes, poems are pulled aside for a second look based simply on certain words that intrigued the reader. So first and foremost, be sure your poetry is written using creative language. Take general ideas and make them personal. In his infamous book De/Compositions: 101 Good Poems Gone Wrong, W. D. Snodgrass imparts, “We cannot honestly discuss or represent our lives, any more than our poems, without using ideational language.”